Afterword

Good evening. I’m Wataru Watari.

We’re moving further into autumn. Autumn of reading, autumn of the arts, autumn of exercise: There are lots of autumns out there. What sort of little autumns have all of you found?

Autumn’s end—

how does my

neighbor live?

Can’t you tell? I’m working.

Autumn of labor. Autumn of corporate slavery… I’m sick of this already!

And so I have humbly delivered to you My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, Volume 6. The story is moving into autumn, too, and though the going is slow, things are gradually proceeding.

It’s been a year and a half since I began writing this series, and within the story’s timeline, it’s been six months. But only recently has it come to me that I myself have only finally gotten to know all the characters—though I’m sure that even now, I only feel like I know them.

Well, there’s still a long road ahead. I hope from this point onward, we can just slowly get acquainted with them, bit by bit. I hope all you readers will continue on with me for a little while longer, too.

And below, the acknowledgments:

To Holy Ponkan: With every single book, your beautiful illustrations reach a new stage of evolution. Are you Psaro? Do you hold the secret formula to evolution? Thank you very much.

To my editor, Mr. Hoshino: I’m very, very sorry for always forcing such a mess of a schedule on you. No, you’ve got the wrong idea! This is because of, you know, cough, cough. Thank you.

To Mr. Koushi Tachibana: Now that I think of it, you were the one who came up with giving this series the abbreviation of -gairu. Thanks to you, things are a confused mess. Is the series nickname Hamachi? Is it Oregairu? I’ll never forgive you for the comments you made on the book band.

To all the writers: I was barely keeping up with things this time around, so you weren’t able to invite me to those drinking parties, but Wataru Watari believes that it’s not because you hate me, but because you were being considerate. Thank you.

To everyone at Media Mix: Thank you so very much for a whole bunch of things I can’t fit in here. I’ll be counting on you moving forward, too.

Also, in writing this book, I made reference to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, translated by Natsuki Ikezawa, published by Shueisha.

And at last, to all my readers: This series has gone by fast, and we’re already at Volume 6. Thanks to all your support, I’ve finally reached a turning point. Thank you so much. It’ll keep on going for just a little longer, y’know?

Now then, on that note, I will set my pen down here.

On a certain day in October, in a certain place in Chiba, on a long autumn night, while sipping hot MAX Coffee,

Wataru Watari